The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1887-04-04
NAVAL APPROPRIATIONS.

sssv's W. WV sssssssS'Ss
1t has not been pretended that the
United States are more likely TO
have foreign war on their hands
during the next ten years than they
have been during the past forty
years. 1t is not disputed that DUR
ing our difficulty with England after
the close of the rebellion, we faced
more definite prospect of war than
now. During those twenty-one years
the Republican politicians who con-
trolled the administration of our
Government not only deliberately
destroyed what navy and coast de-
lenses we had, but refused to re-
place either. Within the past two
months the same politicians in the
Senate of the United States passed
bills for these two objects-naval
construction and coast defense
that call for $50, 100000. During
the same time the same politicians
cooked up fraudulent pension bill,
in which some Democratic politicians
were cowardly enough to concur,
raising our pension roll nearly fifty
per cent, above the army pay roll of
the German Empire. The motive
of the new naval legislation is the
same as that which inspired the
fraudulent Pension legislation, name
ly, to make away with enough re-
venue to avert the necessity of re-
ducing taxation. We hazard moth
ing in saying that so insincere,
tricky, partisan and mean as are
many of the present Republican U.
S. Senators, has never been collect
ed at Washington. The country
has seen them kill the bill that pro-
hibited their receiving money in the
guise of legal fees from Railroad
corporations for services which their
standing rs lawyers would never
command. This money, which no
honorable man in their position
would accept, they clutch at. They
are dishonorable men. The country
saw them pass Retaliation bill"
comforting on the President power
to upset its foreign trade and involve
it in international difficulty with
which no President could be fifty
entrusted. The motive is palpable:
1t was the hope that President Cleve-
land, either by using these powers
or by declining to use them as pre-
text might be raised by the Glouces-
ter fishermen, might put at risk the
present certainty of his reelection.
The specific ends of the Senate
naval appropriations disclose the
real purpose of the Republican
majority to have been only that of
disposing of surplus revenue, for
had their aim been the patriotic one
of developing navy they must have
provided for navy yards adequate
to the end in view. A fleet of ten
heavy ships with sufficient navy
! yards is more efficient than double
or treble the number without them.
The extent of the American coast
gives peculiar power to the calls of
this branch of the service. Crippled
vessels are compelled to make the
first port, and the mere existence OF
a naval station implies the require.
ment of complete navy yard. The
crude bills that we have seen osten'
tatiously passed by the Republican
Senate makes no provision for this
imperative and obvious need. Their,
is no patriotism back of their appro
priations for restoring navy they
had before deliberately destroyed
Their course has been inspired D.
an insincerity as patent as it is con
genial with the mean spirit of per
sonal greed that killed the Railroad
Fees bill and of partisan trickines
that passed the Retaliation bill. Tn
larger spirit and the up-rightness o
motive that are conceded to actuat
President Cleveland and his Cabine
will advance national interests eve
while they battle these little wiles q
little men. The foundations of
policy of naval construction and O
coast defense will be laid.-[S. +
News letter.